While we sleep, the brain is not switched off, but is busy with “saving” the important memories of the day. To achieve that, brain regions are synchronized to coordinate the transmission of information between them. Yet, the mechanisms that enable this synchronization across multiple remote brain regions are not well understood. Traditionally, these mechanisms were sought in correlated activity patterns within the brain. However, neuroscientists have now been able to show that breathing acts as a pacemaker that entrains the various brain regions and synchronizes them with each other.
Breathing is the most persistent and essential bodily rhythm and exerts a strong physiological effect on the autonomous nervous system. It is also known to modulate a wide range of cognitive functions such as perception, attention, and thought structure. However, the mechanisms of its impact on cognitive function and the brain are largely unknown.
The scientists performed large-scale in vivo electrophysiological recordings in mice, from thousands of neurons across the limbic system. They showed that respiration entrains and coordinates neuronal activity in all investigated brain regions - including the hippocampus, medial prefrontal and visual cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens - by modulating the excitability of these circuits in olfaction-independent way.
“Thus, we were able to prove the existence of a novel non-olfactory, intracerebral, mechanism that accounts for the entrainment of distributed circuits by breathing, which we termed “respiratory corollary discharge”, says the lead author. “Our findings identify the existence of a previously unknown link between respiratory and limbic circuits and are a departure from the standard belief that breathing modulates brain activity via the nose-olfactory route”, underlines the author.
This mechanism mediates the coordination of sleep-related activity in these brain regions, which is essential for memory consolidation and provides the means for the co-modulation of the cortico-hippocampal circuits synchronous dynamics.
According to the authors, these results represent a major step forward and provide the foundation for new mechanistic theories, that incorporate the respiratory rhythm as a fundamental mechanism underlying the communication of distributed systems during memory consolidation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28090-5
http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Fbreathing-coordinates&filter=22
Breathing co-ordinates dynamics of the sleeping brain
- 666 views
- Added
Latest News
What happens when plants have stress reactions to touch
Mutation impairs ion channel trafficking in epilepsy
Mutations in a gene could cause a birth defect involving extra fingers or toes
Cornea T cells protecting eyes from viral infections
Are women who have twins more fertile?
Other Top Stories
Assembly of lipid droplets in developing seeds require sterols
A mechanism that helps plants cope with water shortages
How plants respond to heat stress
Transport of RNA across the cells in plants!
The CLASSY family controls tissue-specific DNA methylation patterns in plants
Protocols
Prediction of protein-ligand binding affinity from sequencing data with interpretable machine lea…
Integrating neuroimaging and gene expression data using the imaging transcriptomics toolbox
Antibody structure prediction using interpretable deep learning
A semi-automated workflow for brain Slice Histology Alignment, Registration, and Cell Quantificat…
NanoDam identifies Homeobrain (ARX) and Scarecrow (NKX2.1) as conserved temporal factors in the D…
Publications
The lncRNA PILA promotes NF-B signaling in osteoarthritis by stimulating the activity ofthe prot…
Touch signaling and thigmomorphogenesis are regulated by complementary CAMTA3- and JA-dependent p…
Metabolic adaptation of lymphocytes in immunity and disease
An epilepsy-associated KV1.2 charge-transfer-center mutation impairs KV1.2 and KV1.4 trafficking
Phase separation and zinc-induced transition modulate synaptic distribution and association of au…
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
Lipids
Cell biology of carbohydrate metabolism
RNA interference (RNAi)
RNA structure and functions
Posters
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CANCER–KIDNEY AND BLADDER
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CANCER–PROSTATE, TESTICULAR, AND PENILE
ASCO-2020-GYNECOLOGIC CANCER